Internet download sites can present a user with a set of applications or other software to download and install. The list of applications can be broken out by selectable categories according to application type, such as spreadsheets, email clients, or word processing programs. The download site can also present the user with a search dialog to receive user input to search for applications by name or type.
When a user is presented with a list of applications to view and potentially select and download, the list must be presented in some defined order. At some download sites, the list of applications can be presented according to the total number of downloads already performed for that application from that site. At other download sites, the Web administrator or other manager may manually select an ordered list of applications to present to the user. However, ordering potential download candidates according to these various schemes can involve disadvantages. If a site manager manually selects the order in which applications are presented to users for selection, that order can represent little more than an intuitive estimate by the manager regarding which applications are most popular amongst existing users. If the list is ordered according to rank of total download numbers since the application was first posted (or other predetermined time), the list may fail to take into account such factors as multiple downloads by one or more users, the fact that download totals may spike around the time of a new release, or the fact that an application can be downloaded once and never used, or infrequently used. It may be desirable to provide methods and systems that present a list of application for download and installation based on proportions of actual usage by users, rather than download indicators that may or may not correspond to empirical usage rates.